Everything Old is New Again
by emjac
Summary: My fourth installment of my Kara series. Kara's father moves home.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: I haven't thought about this story in about two years, but a few days ago the characters started talking to me again. This is a short into but it seemed like a good place to stop. I hope my original fans are still around, and new ones pop up. Be sure to check out the other three in the series if you haven't already.**

"You simply cannot be serious . . . Well, that is unacceptable. . . Do NOT tell me that I have no say. She is my child. . . Then my lawyer will be in touch with you."

"That can't be good," Kara said to Dave from where they had entered the house a moment before. "Must have been my father."

Upon seeing the pallor of her face, he decided to send her elsewhere. If his wife was having such a strong reaction, he may as well. Of course there was also the chance that it wasn't Roger with whom Erin had been speaking. It could have been work related. While determining how to best get Kara to leave the room, she saved him from the deed.

"I think I'm going to go take a shower." She handed him the bag of Chinese take out and he added it to the one he was already carrying. "I'll eat later. Maybe by then mom will be calmer."

"Good idea, honey," Dave said. "I'll go see to your mother. We'll all eat when you come down."

He watched her climb to the top of the stairs and turn the corner towards her bedroom before he moved down the hall to his office where his wife was sitting at his desk. Call ended and phone discarded, she sat with her head in her hands. "Oh, I'm not going to like this, am I?"

"He's coming back," she said, not bothering to move her position.

"Please tell me we're not talking about Roger."

"We are." When her husband walked around to the front of the desk and sat on the edge of it, she lifted her head to him. "He bought the house on the cul-de-sac around the corner."

"Around the corner from _here_?" he asked. That was a bold move, even for Roger.

Erin nodded her head and sat back in her chair. "His wife came to her senses and left him. There's nothing holding him to California, so he's coming back to 'reconnect with his daughter.'"

"Did it occur to him to discuss this with his daughter first?"

Erin shrugged one shoulder. "Seems she blocked his number on her phone. He says he couldn't get in touch with her but we both know he wouldn't have cared how she felt about it. Roger knows best."

"Ok," Dave said, "let's look at this logically. Roger is moving here. We can't stop him. Not even your lawyer can stop him as he's doing nothing illegal. But Kara is an adult. She can make her own choices about the type and extent of a relationship she wants with him. We just have to be here to support her."

"Chronologically speaking, she's an adult, but we both know she's a very young twenty-one year old. She was subjected to parentification as a teen by my alcoholism, then abused by her father, so her emotional maturity is a bit lower than adult."

"Wow," Kara stood in the doorway of the office trying to process what she heard from her mother.

Her parents leapt to their feet. "Kara," Erin said.

"Um, I was just coming to tell you that Rachel called and we're heading to a party at the dorms. So, I guess I'll see you guys later." She turned and left.

Erin tried to scramble around her husband to get to her daughter, calling out her name in her efforts, but David stopped her. "Let her go," he said. "There's nothing you can say right now to make her feel better. You can talk to her tomorrow."

"Yeah, ok," Erin said. She ran her hand through her hair and tried to compose herself. She couldn't believe her daughter overheard her comments. What kind of mother was she anyway? She needed a drink. The feeling overwhelmed her. Her ex-husband, who she learned only a few months ago had been abusive to her daughter, both physically and emotionally, was returning to live in a house down the street from them and try to rekindle a relationship with Kara. What fresh hell was this? "I think I need to go call my sponsor," she said. David kissed her on the head without saying a word and closed the door on his way out.

He grabbed the bag on Chinese food abandoned in the foyer and brought it onto the patio. "Moo shoo pork for one tonight," he said to the stars.

CMCMCMCMCM

Erin waited up for her daughter that night. She was sitting at the kitchen table with files from work to keep her alert and occupied in the late hours of the night, turned morning. The phone call with her sponsor calmed her and then the sex with her husband relaxed her. She left Dave to sleep in bed, convinced that the forthcoming conversation would go well. She needed to apologize for the abruptness of what Kara overheard her saying, explain what she meant, and inform Kara that her father was coming home. Likely everything would have gone well, if it weren't an intoxicated daughter that came through the door.

"Kara," Erin was aghast at the condition of her daughter stumbling through the foyer.

"Mom," Kara said, "what are you doing up?" She tried to stand as straight as possible and hoped she was pulling off a sober, albeit tired, persona.

"You're drunk."

"I told you I was going to a party," she said, stepping around her mother. "Now I'm going to bed."

"How did you get home?" Erin asked. "Tell me you didn't drive." She followed Kara to the stairs.

"I didn't drive," was all Kara said as her mother watched her stumble up the stairs.

Erin's feelings went from shocked to sad to angry in the seconds since Kara entered the house. They stopped at angry. She brushed past her daughter on the staircase and said, "Your father's moving down the street. He'll be here in a week," as she passed her and went to bed.

The bile rose quickly in Kara's throat and she thanked God that she made it to the bathroom before she heaved. Her father was coming home.

 **Thanks for reading. Please review.**


	2. Chapter 2

Her shoulders ached from their huddled position but moving them out of their kink required more effort than she can muster. The pounding in her head seemed quieter if she was still, so she sat as still as she could, curled into herself at the kitchen table. The mug of tea in front of her was cradled in her hands and she closed her eyes and allowed its warmth to permeate her body, praying for healing powers.

The awareness that someone entered the room caused her eyes to open. Seeing him there brought on a new bout of nausea. He knew. Unable to speak, she waited for him to start, and for the queasiness to calm.

Thankfully he kept his voice low, although he would have liked to shake the foundation with his volume, "Your mother's upset," he said.

She raised the mug to her lips and the hot liquid washed down her throat, warming from within as she knew it would. The intention was to settle her stomach and conjure up a profound response. The first goal met, all she can think to say was, "I know. But, then, so am I."

He moved around the room preparing his coffee. She saw, or maybe sensed, his sideways glances. Caffeine drink fixed, he turned to sit adjacent to her at the table and his eyes bore through her. He paused a beat and, single mindedly focused only on her behavior the previous evening, asked, "How did you get home?"

"I took an Uber," she says, "I didn't drink and drive. I wouldn't do that."

He lets out a sigh of relief before he continued. "Any reason why you didn't just stay at the dorms?"

Kara took another soothing sip of tea, closed her eyes, and waited for it to work. When she opened them she said, "I was kind of curious about what everyone was so upset about and why she was saying such awful things about me. Don't worry, though, she told me about my father. As I was trying not to hurl on the staircase." She stood and moved, slower than she wanted to, to garner more tea. "She's a real sweetheart at delivering bad news, isn't she? Bitch." She was hoping that with her back turned to him and the slight lowering of her voice, he hadn't heard. She waited at the stove for the water to reboil, and for him to respond.

He waited a moment too, looking up at where she stood at the stove, knowing that she was holding her breath. "Don't talk like that about your mother," he said in an even keel tone.

Kara turned to look at him, "You know I'm right. What does that mean, anyway? Parentification?"

"It means that you had to take on the role of an adult at an early age. And it's the truth."

The kettle began to steam and she turned back to it and shut off the burner before it screamed. She made her tea and walked back to the table, still moving slowly. She blew across the top of the beverage and closed her eyes again. She was so tired. Everything ached. "She called me an immature baby. After hearing that my father is coming back. That's not exactly nice."

"So, what? You set out last night to prove her right?"

Kara's eyes opened. "I went to a party and had a little something to drink. I'm a legal adult, as mom seems to have forgotten, so that is an acceptable activity."

David rose and poured a second cup of coffee. He turned back to his step daughter. "Drinking so much that you can't drive home, can barely get up the stairs, and cannot function the next morning is not acceptable. And I'm not impressed. Now this conversation is over because I will not sit here and listen to you bad mouth and swear about my wife. You need to think hard about the choices you're making." He left her at the table and retreated to his office.

The hot herbal beverage failed in its attempt at calming her stomach, easing the pain in her head, and perking her up, so Kara returned to her bed and slept for hours. When she woke, she found a text from her mother.

 _Sorry about how things worked out yesterday. I'd like to talk._

 _I'll be home for dinner 7. Be nice to David._

Kara read it a few times then thought carefully before sending a reply before typing.

 _Im sorry 2. Ttyl_

It seemed trite but was all she could manage. Her phone beeped. She had no doubt that her mother, who sent her first message almost an hour ago, had been holding her phone in the palm of her hand waiting for Kara to get back to her.

 _Love you_

Kara wrote.

 _U2_

She spent most of the rest of the day lounging around the house. The effects of the previous night were gone, but she didn't feel like doing much. Shows were watched, some school work was completed. Dave emerged from his office late in the afternoon to announce that he was called in for a case and would likely be out of town for a bit.

"Listen," he said, standing in front of Kara, "I'm not leaving with bad feelings between us. We are fine. I love you. You love me. Everything is fine, understand?"

"Yeah," she said leaning into his open arms. "Just be safe, ok?"

"Always." He kissed the top of her head. "And be good. Be nice to you mother."

"Funny. She said the same thing about you today."

With a light tap on her check, and a murmur about great minds, he left.

Kara set about finding something for dinner for her and her mother so that by the time Erin walked through the door at precisely seven o'clock, Kara was placing the last of it on the patio table. She had lit the citronella candles around the deck and the place look quite inviting.

"This is nice," Erin said, stepping through the patio door to greet her daughter. "Thank you."

"Just a little salad. Dave goes a little crazy with the pasta so I thought we could take a break from it while he's gone."

Erin sat at the table and took a sip of sparkling water. "Don't let him hear you say that."

"This case he's on. Is everything going to be ok? He was a little weird when he left."

"I hope so. He's in Arizona. Kids are involved so everyone's on edge. I'm sure they'll be fine." That was about the extent of information that Kara ever got on one of their cases. Sometimes she would see things on the news and put some pieces together herself, but her parents shielded her from the most grisly details. "Let's talk about you."

Kara's shoulders slumped.

"We need to discuss your drinking," Erin said, wasting no time and getting right to the point.

"I've told you before, we're not discussing that. I have nothing to say to you about it."

"When you come into my house in the condition you were in last night, we most certainly will be discussing it."

"Regardless of what you think of my maturity level, I am a legal adult and can drink as much as I'd like."

Erin wanted to scream, "Not under my roof!" but thought back on her earlier phone conversation with David, and thought better of it.

" _You are going to push her further away if you come down on her. She is, in fact, an adult. She is not doing anything illegal."_

" _David, she could barely walk! I'm supposed to be ok with that. I don't want her to think that kinds of behavior is acceptable in our house."_

" _Then she will leave_ our house. _Is that what you want?"_

" _No, of course not."_

" _Then by all means tell her you're unhappy with her drinking to access, but do not tell her she cannot act like that under your roof or she will move back into the dorms, or in with Roger, or God knows where. We need to support her and guide her, but not push her away."_

Keeping her voice as quiet and calm as possible, Erin opted for, "You know that alcoholism is hereditary."

Kara was not as successful in keeping her voice down. "So I go out once and get drunk and now I'm an alcoholic?"

"Of course not, sweetheart. I just want you to be careful. I worry. And I love you. That's all."

Kara was taken aback. She expected more yelling from her mother and perhaps an ultimatum. She relaxed now that this conversation seemed over. She returned to her salad and they both ate in peace for a few minutes. "What about my father? What's going on?"

Erin put her fork down, "Kara, I am sorry about how I told you the news. That was so unfair to you. I was angry, but I should have handled it better."

"It's ok. Just tell me more now."

"I don't have much information. Lindsay left him. He quit his job and he's coming back here. He got his old job at the firm back and bought the house on the cul-de-sac."

"The house around the corner?" Kara asked. Hew stomach dropped. This part of the story was news to her. "That cul-de-sac?"

"Yes."

"Why would he move that close? Why would he do that?"

"I don't know. He said he wants to be close to you."

"Shit. What are we going to do? I don't want him that close."

"Kara, what is there to do? We certainly aren't moving to get away from him."

Moving away sounded like the perfect idea to Kara. Running away from anywhere her father was going to be sounded like a great idea. She put her fork down. She could not wrap her head around this new development. What was her father doing? What was he thinking? She needed to talk to Dave. He would know.

As if reading her mind, Erin said, "Don't worry, Kara, we'll figure everything out. And whatever you decide to do, David and I will support you."

Whatever she decided to do? She was expected to decide something? Kara felt lost and confused, but took a sip of her water and gave her mom a slight smile. What the heck was she going to do?

 **AN: Thanks for reading. Please review.**


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